Doll with movable eyes



Oct. 21, 1958 B. s. PACHOLOK DOLL WITH MOVABLE EYES Filed Feb. 9, 1956INVENTOR BOHDAN S. PAC HOLOK ATTORNEY United States Patent C DOLL WITHMOVABLE EYES Bohdan S. Pacholok, Bayonne, N. J., assignor to MargonCorporation, Newark, N. J a corporation of New Jersey ApplicationFebruary 9, 1956, Serial No. 564,531

4 Claims. (Cl. 46-169) This invention relates to dolls, and moreparticularly to movable or sleeping eyes for the same.

In recent years there has been much use of soft flexible material fordoll heads. This in turn has led to individual or independently movabledoll eyes of compact configuration, because the eyes have been mountedwithin separate small protective housings, which in turn have beenpushed into sockets formed immediately behind the eye openings.

Nevertheless rigid doll heads are still made, and in such cases thetrend is to use hard plastics materials. When hard heads were made ofwood pulp, a pair of eyes were mounted on a metal bridge having tangswhich were embedded in the material of the head. In an expansion bridgethe tangs were forced outwardly into the side walls of the head, butsuch a bridge is unsuited for a hard plastics head, which may be brokenby the outward pressure, instead of the tangs being embedded. A bridgeof the hanger type, in which tangs are clamped toward one another onopposite sides of a rearward projection formed internally of the head atthe forehead, is better with hard plastics materials, in that there isno force tending to break the head itself, but there still is difiicultyin embedding tangs in the hard plastics material. Moreover, both ofthese known bridges are designed for use with a spindle or crossrodconnecting the two eyes, and carrying a weight arm at the center betweenthe eyes.

The primary object of the present invention is to gen erally improvedolls and doll eyes, and to provide movable doll eyes for heads made ofhard plastics materials. A more particular object is to provide amounting means or so-called bridge for use with individual do-ll eyes ofcommonly available type. Still another object is to provide such abridge which is easily mounted within a doll head through its neckopening, by using a solvent or cement, thereby obviating difiicultywhich has arisen when attempting to embed metal tangs into a hardplastics material.

To accomplish the foregoing general objects, and other more specificobjects which will hereinafter appear, my invention resides in the dollhead and eyeset elements, and their relation one to another, as are moreparticularly described in the following specification. The specificationis accompanied by a drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the forward part of a doll head atone of the eye openings;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the head, taken approximately inthe plane of the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view looking toward the front wall of the headfrom the rear, without the eyeset;

Fig. 4 is a perspective exploded view showing how the individual eyesare applied to the bridge and the latter applied to the seat of afixture or mounting tool which may be used when mounting the eyes in thehead; Fig. 5 is a partially sectioned elevation of the fixture with ahead disposed over the eyes; and

Fig. 6 shows a modification of a detail of the bridge.

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Referring to the drawing, I combine a doll head generally designated H,with an eyeset generally designated E. The head H is molded out of ahard plastics material, and has eye openings 12, and a rearwardprojection 14 inside the forehead. The eyeset E comprises a bridge B,and two individual doll eyes 16 and 18. Each eye has its own operatingweight 26, and has trunnions 22 at the sides thereof. The bridge Bcomprises a bar 24 with four bearing arms 26, 28, 30 and 32 dependingtherefrom. Each of the arms has a bearing slot 36 open at the front toreceive the trunnions of the eyes, and the front center portion of thebridge has a face 40 (Figs. 2 and 4) which later is secured to the rearsurface of the internal projection 14 of the head, as shown in Figs. 1and 5.

In preferred form the eyes 16 and 18 are preferably molded in one pieceout of a plastics material, and in such case each eye as molded isformed with the weight portion 20 and trunnions 22. Similarly the bridgeB is preferably a single body of a molded plastics material, and asmolded includes the bar 24, and the dependent arms with their bearingslots 36, as well as the face 40. The latter is preferably secured tothe back face of projection 14 by the use of a suitable solvent orcement, which may be so quick-acting that there is no appreciable delaywhen mounting the eyeset in the head.

The operation of mounting the eyeset in the head may be facilitated byusing a suitable fixture or tool such as that illustrated in Fig. 5, andpartially shown in Fig. 4. The fixture here shown comprises a base 42supporting an arm 44, as by means of posts 46 and 48, reinforced by astrut 50. As here made, the part 50 is integral with the arm 44, but thearm 44 may be supported in any desired fashion. At its upper end itcarries a seat 52 (Fig. 4) having raised ends 54 and 56. It may alsohave a locating pin 58, in which case the bridge is provided with amating hole 60.

In using the apparatus the center portion of bridge B is first placed onseat 52, with pin 53 received in hole 60, at which time the arms 28 and30 fit between the inner edges 57 of the projections 54 and 56. The eye16 is then dropped into position with its trunnions 22 received inbearing slots 36, and similarly the eye 18 is dropped in position. Atthis time the weight portions 20 hang down alongside the surface 62 ofseat 52, and the back edges of the eyes may approach or nearly rest onthe raised top surfaces of the parts 54 and 56 of the seat 52. Thisrelationship, shown in Fig. 5, need not be exact, but is suflicientlyclose to hold the eyes in approximately desired position with the eyeslooking upward.

Heads made of hard material are customarily made in front and backhalves which are subsequently secured the diameter of the neck openingthe head may nevertheless he slipped over the bridge by moving it at anangle over one end of the bridge first, and then turning the head tocome around the other end. This operation may be facilitated by locatingthe seat 52 unsymmetrically or oifset from the arm 44, and that ispreferably done, as is shown in Fig. 4. The eyeset is then similarlyoffset, and the head is slipped over the longer end first.

Before slipping the head over the eyeset some solvent or cement isapplied to the surface 40. After the head has been placed in positionwith the eyes located properly in the eye openings it is presseddownward momentarily at the forehead, thus securing the part 14 of thedoll to the surface 40 of the bridge. The head, and

to angularly position the head, for the seat 52 (unlike the bridge 8')is much smaller than the diameter of the neck opening.

As so far described the bearing slots 36 are fully open toward thefront. Such an arrangement is entirely feasible, for when the head isupright the trunnions rest on the bottom of the bearings, as shown inFig. 1, and when the head is in sleeping position the trunnions rest onthe closed ends of the bearing slots, as shown in Fig. 5. Escape of thetrunnions from the slots is prevented because the eye openings of thehead confine the eye members at the front.

Nevertheless, if desired, the bearing slots may be slightly undercut toreceive the trunnions with a snap engagement, and to thereafter retainthe same, although they are freely rotatable in the bearings. Such anarrangement is shown in Fig. 6, in which the bearing slot 66 of bridgearm 68 is slightly narrowed or undercut, as shown at 70. This is true ofall four bearings. This construction is of advantage in the event thatthe eye manufacturer wishes to ship, or the doll manufacturer wishes toreceive, eyesets in assembled relation, instead of three separate partsfor each eyeset.

The bridge of the present invention may be used with eyes made in avariety of ways. The essential requirements are that the eyes beindividual eyes, with each eye having its own trunnions and operatingweight. When, as here illustrated, the eyes have lashes '76, that factmay be taken advantage of by using the lash as a motion limiting stop.

The preferred form of eye here illustrated is next described in greaterdetail. The complete eye is preferably molded of a single body oftransparent plastics material. The material, although transparent, ispreferably tinted, typically brown for a brown eye, and blue for a blueeye. The eye as molded has the weight portion 20 projecting rearwardlyfrom the lower part thereof, and the trunnions 22 at the sides thereof.An annular portion '72 is roughened at the back, to reflect light insimulation of an iris, and a circular portion 74 within the annularportion 72 is smooth at the back, to transmit light in simulation of apupil. Thus the iris will look blue or brown, but the pupil will lookblack because the head is enclosed, and therefore is black on theinside. This construction is in accordance with U. S. Patent No. 2,657,-500, issued November 3, 1953, to Hans W. Samolewitz, and entitledTransparent Doll Eye. The eye surrounding the iris portion 74 is coloredwhite below the lash 76, while the part above the lash 76 is fleshcolored in simulation of an eyelid.

The front of the eye is generally hemispherical, but may be cut away atthe bottom, forward of the trunnions 22, as indicated at 78. This hasthe advantage of making the weight portion 20 more effective, as isdescribed in a copending application of Robert I. Prupis, Serial No.487,096, filed February 9, 1955, now Patent No. 2,796,- 487, andentitled Movable Doll Eye. It helps counteract the fact that theplastics material may be low in specific gravity, and the further factthat the top of the weight portion is preferably channeled ortrough-shaped to permit a mold core to reach the iris 72 at the back ofthe eye when molding the same.

The lash 76 may be a hair lash inserted through a slit, but more simplyis molded integrally with the eye out of the same plastics material. Insuch case it is colored black or dark brown. The lash may be made of aseparate soft plastics material, typically a vinyl resin, and in suchcase may be molded integrally with a weight which is separate from thehemispherical eye itself, but which is added to the eye when the lash ispassed through the lash slit. Such a construction is shown in copendingapplication of Albert Bashover, Serial No. 563,923, filed February 7,1956, and titled Doll Eye.

The plastics material used for the eye may be a styrene or celluloseacetate butyrate plastics material, and, of course, should be amaterialobtainable in transparent form, when made as here described.

The head may be molded of cellulose acetate or cellulose acetatebutyrate. The bridge may be molded of the same plastics, or of styrene.The solvent used to secure the bridge to the head may be methyl ethylketone, or acetone.

It is believed that the construction and memod of use of my improvementin doll eyes, as well as the advantages thereof, will be apparent fromthe foregoing detailed description. It will also be apparent that whileI have shown and described my invention in a preferred form, changes maybe made in the structure shown, without departing from the scope of theinvention, as sought to be defined in the following claims. In theclaims there is reference to the provision of four bearing arms withfour bearings to receive the trunnions of the two eyes, but this is notintended to exclude a bridge in which the middle two arms are connected,thus making only three arms with four bearings. The wide middle armwould in such case function as two arms.

I claim:

1. A doll eyeset, comprising a bridge and a pair of individually movableunconnected doll eyes, each eye having its own operating weight and apair of trunnions at the opposite sides thereof, said bridge includingfour depending bearing arms with each of the latter having a bearingslot open at the front, each companion pair of bearing arms atthe'bearing slots thereof being adapted to receive the trunnions of aneye for pivotally mounting the latter to said bridge, the front of saidbridge having a face portion adapted for securement to a mating part ofa doll head for mounting said eyes in the head in properly orientedrelation.

2. A doll eyeset, comprising a bridge and a pair of individually movableunconnected doll eyes, each eye having its own operating weight and apair of trunnions at the opposite sides thereof, said bridge includingfour depending bearing arms with each of the latter having a bearingslot open at the front, each companion pair of bearing arms at thebearing slots thereof being adapted to receive the trunnions of an eyefor pivotally mounting the latter to said bridge, the front of saidbridge having a face portion adapted for securement to a mating part ofa doll head for mounting said eyes in the head in properly orientedrelation, each eye being a single body of molded plastics materialhaving its weight and trunnions integrally molded therewith, and saidbridge being a single body of molded plastics material with said faceportion thereof being centrally located along the bridge.

3. In combination, a doll head and a doll eyeset, said doll head beingmolded out of hard plastics material and having eye openlngs and arearward projection inside the forehead, said eyeset comprising a bridgeand a pair of individually movable unconnected doll eyes, each eyehaving its own operating weight and a pair of trunnions at the oppositesides thereof, said bridge including four depending bearing arms witheach of the latter having a bearing slot open at the front, eachcompanion pair of bearing arms at the bearing slots thereof mounting thetrunnions of an eye for pivotally mounting the latter to said bridge,the front of said bridge having a face portion which is secured to therear surface of said internal projection of the head for mountingsaideyes in the head in properly oriented relation.

4. In combination, a doll head and a doll eyeset, said doll head beingmolded out of hard plastics material and having eye openings and arearward projection inside the forehead, said eyeset comprising a bridgeand a pair of individually movable unconnected doll eyes, each eyehaving its own operating weight and a pair of trunnions at the oppositesides thereof, said bridge including four depending bearing arms witheach of the latter having a bearing slot open at the front, eachcompanion pair of bearing arms at the bearing slots thereof mounting thetrunnions of an eye for pivotally mounting the latter to said bridge,each eye being a single body of molded plastics material having itsweight and trunnions integrally molded therewith, and said bridge beinga single body of molded plastics material, the front center of saidbridge having a face portion which is cemented to the rear surface ofsaid internal projection of the head for mounting said eyes in the headin properly oriented relation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSDenivelle Mar. 28, 1916 Pudlin Feb. 10, 1920 Litomy Mar. 15, 1932Grubman Apr. 30, 1935 Kusold July 1, 1952 Brudney July 10, 1956

